


On Higher Powers

by WhoopsOK



Category: Person of Interest (TV), Supernatural
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Begging, Blood and Gore, Consent Issues, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Demons, Kinktober, Knife Play, Masochism, Other, Power Imbalance, Referenced Genital Torture, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 23:15:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12264084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhoopsOK/pseuds/WhoopsOK
Summary: "It takes her longer than she would like to admit to realize that Ruby is feeding her a con. The screaming and tears are real; that had distracted her from realizing they aren’t from fear."(Root thinks she's torturing Ruby, but she doesn't really understand what she's up against.)





	On Higher Powers

**Author's Note:**

> Oct. 4, knife ~~play~~ , begging
> 
> A crossover that literally nobody asked for but here it is anyway because you can’t stop me?
> 
> Fair warning, doll, this is less knife play and more torture, though the recipient enjoys it. Speaking of which: referenced genital torture because Ruby is a masochist and also a bitch.

Not believing in a higher power was easy, first and second nature to Root.

It was easy for her to conclude that there was nothing and nobody up there looking out for her or anyone else stuck on this shithole. Humans were a mistake, a glitch in the evolutionary code; they weren’t created by anything, certainly nothing higher. She had seen that first hand, she’d _lived_ that.

Believing in a _lower_ power was nothing she’d really considered, though.

(Later she will consider it so hard she’ll believe. She’ll believe in Hell with all her body and her soul, the dark gouges left behind in both. She’ll believe with the taste of blood and foreign arousal thick on her tongue, watching her hands doing things she didn’t tell them to do. She’ll believe it because of the vacancy inside herself, the way she misses the horror of the writhing darkness, the whispers that spoke directly into her head. Later, when she is alone and feels like it, Root will believe. The story of her belief starts today.)

The woman had begged at first, tearfully, twisting in her bonds. Dark hair plastered to her face with sweat, her clothes a bloody mess, barely clinging to her frame from where Root had dragged a knife through them, down through her skin, getting as close to muscle as she dared without bleeding the woman dry before she gave Root the information she wanted.

Ruby – and Root did believe that was her name – knew what was going on with the anomaly in the Machine’s data. The missing persons, the burned churches, the child murders and child _murderers_ – there was a mastermind behind it, there had to be. The pattern was too clean for there not to be, even Finch had said that.

Finch just wasn’t the kind of person who could ask questions the right way.

Then again, Root is beginning to wonder if even _she_ is.

It takes her longer than she would like to admit to realize that Ruby is feeding her a con. The screaming and tears are real; that had distracted her from realizing they aren’t from fear. Root recognizes fear, sometimes even revels in it, but Ruby isn’t afraid of her or the pain she’s causing. Her panting and writhing, the look in her eyes… she isn’t reacting quite like it’s _pain_.

Root has blood up to her elbows, more than a bit splattered across her clothes. Ruby is a _mess_ of blood and quivering, dangling skin. Heaving for breath as she mutters, “ _please, fuck, please, please_ ” again and again and Root realizes, abruptly, she’s never said “ _please, stop_ ” or anything remotely like it.

Just “ _please_ ”.

Knife in her off hand, Root cuts open the crotch of Ruby’s pants, carelessly tears them open.

Ruby’s panties are fucking _soaked_ , but not with blood or piss _._

“Please,” Ruby says, twitching towards her hand.

“What are you?” Root says blankly, a tone that would be trembling terror on anyone else.

“Please,” Ruby whines, eyes darting around the room, landing on the iron. “Maybe try that? You like that one right?”

The plastic on the floor crinkles as Root takes a step backwards, out of words, uncomprehending. Her eyes flicker to the faraday box where she’d stashed her phone and ear piece and wonders if her own self-induced silence was worth not wanting to listen to the Machine give her the cold shoulder.

“Please, Samantha,” Ruby sobs and Root’s whole body goes cold. “Fucking burn me, put that hot iron right on my wet little cunt just like you threatened to do to Samee—”

Root’s knife is in her throat before she gets the name all the way out. Watching Ruby gag and sputter, struggling for breath, dread – an emotion she almost _never_ experiences – is clawing cold and insistent inside Root’s chest. No, she shouldn’t have killed her, she had the answers to too many of their questions, they needed her alive. But instinct had won over Root’s better judgement, Ruby had to die. Ruby knows her, knows Shaw and about something that happened privately between the two of them _ages_ ago.

Samaritan hadn’t even been online yet or—they hadn’t _thought_ Samaritan was online. How could the Machine have missed something like that? Was it a test run? Was there a _different_ AI online?

She’s across the room, unlocking the box where her phone is. She needs to talk to the Machine, she needs to talk to _everyone_ , but no sooner has she turned it on does she hear the plastic behind her shift with motion. Her gun is drawn, but she’s sure she’s losing it, she’s been drugged and a gun won’t help her now.

The fear is gone like Ruby’s face never even knew the shape of it, her mouth stretching into a lazy smile as she laughs breathlessly, blood splattering from between her teeth as she does. “What a fucking clit tease,” she coos, stroking herself through her panties, heedless of her blood on her hands, of her broken fingers. “We could’ve had fun.”

It’s taking everything in Root to stifle the tremors threatening to take over. “ _What are you?_ ” she demands, but Ruby doesn’t appear to be listening, rocking and whining, lost in her own pleasure. Her eyes roll back for a moment and when they land on Root again, they’re solid black.

Root blinks and she’s gone, but just a tickle of sound has her whipping around, firing her gun immediately. Ruby grunts, but her grin is manic and Root’s gun is flying out of her hands and across the room. The same invisible force sends her flying back against the wall, holding her down when she crumples to the floor. Her phone is ringing, she can just hear it over the ringing in her ears.

“I’m just a concerned _lower power_ ,” Ruby answers finally. Her clothes are still in tatters, but her skin is fine, she’s _healed_ as she saunters forward to crouch beside Root’s head, Root’s phone in her hand.

“Word downstairs is your friend built a god.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading…if you’re gonna do something stupid, enable your phone’s GPS first
> 
> Mm! That was interesting to write, would you believe I just came up with it yesterday? I was thinking I wouldn't even manage the first week, but here we are, I've almost got seven written!


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